A Decoy Soul
by BlueFlaw
Summary: After emerging victorious over Tartaros, Fairy Tail celebrates and life goes back to normal. That is, until a mysterious writer sheds a dark light upon them and accuses them of actually being a dark guild, and then the Black Wizard himself visits to warn them of an upcoming war. Not only that, but they realize that their resident fire dragonslayer is not all that he seems to be..
1. Secrets are not Secrets Forever

**Chapter One**

 **Secrets are not Secrets Forever**

 _He was in a burning hell. The once lively, green field was all charred black with flames still rising from them. Blood flooded the ground, most of the ashes of the dead nature being dissolved by the scarlet liquid or life-consuming flames. The sky was a reflection of the ground; all red. A small pink haired boy laid in the midst of burning wood. The scorching of the embers started to consume his body as his stare was fixed on remnants of a figure. Completely charred black, the figure of the person was completely unrecognizable. But the boy could remember what it looked like._

" _Mother…" he rasped before screaming from the burning pain of the fire. But his weak voice was drowned out by the deafening roars of the flames. He could quickly feel his vision blurring and pain increasing until he felt his body being patted down by some sort of blanket. The fires hissed but disappeared into smoke as the fire blanket patted away the flames. The boy felt his body being moved as he cracked a warm smile. He saw a black haired boy just before his vision died and his mind went blank._

 _But even still, his mouth managed a tiny whisper._

 _"Brother."_

* * *

The fiery whispers followed him from his dream.

Natsu woke up with the worst headache ever. He slowly blinked his eyes as he reached his hands up to scratch his hair. After five minutes of thinking about his dream, he rose from the couch he was sleeping on and walked over to a mirror. The mirror was a reflection of his messy self. His pink, spiky hair was all ruffled up, his clothes were all dirty and wrinkled, and his eyes wore bags under them. Visible drops of sweat were streaming down his skin. He had seen better days. Even the bright white scarf he always carried with him was dull.

He coughed into his arm and stared vapidly at his reflection. Red eyes gleamed for a second as he growled at the air, "Mard Geer, you really brought back bad memories." At that second, the mirror suddenly shattered when nothing seemingly happened. Natsu frowned as he decided to enter the bathroom to clean himself.

* * *

It had been a week since Fairy Tail's battle with Tartaros. As usual, Fairy Tail held a grand celebration over the victory. Cheer, drink, gossip, spill drinks, pass out, then remember nothing when woken up, it was the normal routine for a celebration. All the Fairy Tail members had expected there to be a peaceful transition. Their hopes had been crushed as one single piece of paper declared war and Fairy Tail would have yet another war to fight,

All the members, excluding a certain ace member who never seemed to be around most of the time and a certain fire dragon slayer, huddled around a table. The master, Makarov, stood on the table as he prepared to read the article's contents.

In bold print, the title was " **FAIRY TAIL | A GREAT, DARK THREAT** "

Makarov skimmed the contents of the article once more before reading out loud, "Fairy Tail, having defeated all three of the most vilest guilds of the Baram Alliance, raises many questions as people grow suspicious of why Fairy Tail is destroying all the dark guilds one by one…"

Many whispers erupted to comment on the first sentence. The members quickly argued that light guilds are allowed to take down dark guilds as it is apart of their job. A certain scarlet haired mage, Erza, silenced everyone and signaled Makarov to continue.

"No doubt is this 'light' guild called Fairy Tail considerably strong as it is shown in their performance in the Grand Magic Games and in their merit for defeating the main trio of the Baram Alliance. However, as proven continuously in the time period before and after their seven year disappearance, they are destroyers. Every town they visit turns into crumbles and every sky they touch is polluted by smoke or blood. Now that there is no council able to keep this _light_ guild in check, who is to say that this guild will betray the light and join the dark. Perhaps during their 'Seven Year Disappearance' they were actually discussing and plotting the destruction of the whole world. Perhaps the reason they are defeating all the dark guilds is because they want to take control of the dark guild world for themselves."

Again, the guild exploded in protests to the words of the article but it wasn't exactly the speculation of the article that riled everyone up. No one could really care less of what blasphemy any reporter said about Fairy Tail. It was the next section that irritated everyone.

The heading was **THE DANGEROUS MEMBERS TO LOOK OUT FOR**

Makarov didn't even bother reading this section out loud because it was ridiculous, pretty much by now everyone heard this part of the paper from rumors. The summary of it was that that particular section of the article featured many of the member's background information.

Erza's eyes were shadowed by her bangs as her killing intent swirled the whole room. She couldn't believe her ears when she heard that the article included her past of being a slave in the Tower of Heaven and accused that her experiences being there had caused her to be tainted evil.

Gray left a cold chill in the room as he found out that the article released information about how his family and master died to a demon and accused that his sense of wanting revenge will make him easily manipulable and easy to turn to the dark side. It also included "uses ice to freeze innocent animals to death." It was insulting and exaggerated and there was very much unneeded information.

It was understandable why those two were enraged because their private life had just been violated.

There were more accusations (that were somewhat true) and unnecessary information released on the other members, like Laxus almost destroying Magnolia and having a dark father that corrupted him, Gildarts for being a womanizer, Mira being a sadistic demon, Lucy for abandoning her dad and trying to seduce men with her skimpy outfits, and etc. The most annoyed members about this section were, surprisingly, Macao and Wakaba. Not only did their feature in the section have only one sentence but the sentence was "Beware, Born a pervert."

Unsurprisingly, the exceeds, the children and Levy were not mentioned. Seeing as how the exceeds were always forgotten, and Levy and the children were always seemingly innocent, it was no surprise that they weren't added to the sections. Happy sulked about how he was forgotten… again.

The biggest surprise, however, was that nowhere in the article did it mention Natsu, probably the most destructive mage in the guild. The members thought that perhaps the writer didn't add him because the only thing bad in Natsu's past was that he would accidentally destroy buildings- it wasn't really new information. But in this particular section, it would have been logical to add the fire dragon slayer to the dangerous member list especially since they added Wendy to the list for being "Too cute to be true. Uses innocent, childlike charms to lure in or turn people into pedophiles."

"And..?" Makarov trailed off as he looked up from the paper to look at the guild. "Why did you guys want me to do by reading this?"

Silence spread through the guild like a wildfire. That was a record, the guild never got quiet that fast. Finally someone spoke. "Aren't you going to do something?" and another unnamed member asked. "Someone is ruining our guild's reputation and you're just going to do nothing?"

Makarov sighed. "Brats… I think it's time you learned that the media is just as annoying as the council. The council will do whatever it takes to have control, and the media will do whatever it takes to gain attention. Just think of these papers as the council. No one of importance is going to believe this. It will have no effect. It will have no meaning. End of story."

All the members reluctantly looked at each other for a second, then dispersed in relief. This article had been on their minds for a while, they were glad that the master had dismissed it to be just some nonsense.

Makarov jumped off from the table and sat on the counter. In his mind he was wondering just how the writer of the article acquired such information about the members. His curious eyes drifted to one particular group. Team Natsu. The team was currently venting out the stress and embarrassment caused by what the article had displayed of them. Makarov noticed a certain lack of the member who the team was named after.

The master approached the group and asked, "Where's Natsu?"

The blue cat, Happy, perked his head up to reveal he was eating a fish. "He's sick," Happy said with his mouth full.

"Sick?" the master's eyes widened in disbelief. "Did he eat something again or is he just recovering from motion sickness?"

"No, he has a slight fever and he said he isn't feeling well. He told me to let the team know that they should take a mission without him."

"A fever? That flamebrain has a fever? I find that hard to believe," Gray exclaimed as this was new information to him and the group too.

"A _slight_ fever," Happy corrected happily.

"Maybe we should visit him before we leave on the mission," Lucy suggested.

"I think we will," Erza said, while crushing the paper of the article in her hand. She then approached Mira and requested for a simple A-Class mission. They had originally planned on going on an S-Class mission, but decided it wouldn't feel right without Natsu. That, and they didn't want to hear constant whining from the fire dragon slayer.

After receiving the mission she requested, she went to the team and dragged them outside the guild with Happy trailing behind. Makarov ran after them, also worried for the dragonslayer. He took a sip of his drink before muttering under his breath, "I sense a storm coming." As cliche as the phrase was, it could never be more true.

The group reached his house. The door was slightly open, but it didn't really bother them as they always thought Natsu was the type of person to forget to close and lock his door at night. Also, Happy remembered that he forgot to close the door when he left.

They entered the house to find a mess, as usual. Lucy sweat-dropped as her work to clean this house had been undone… again. There wasn't really anything strange about the mess, except the shattered mirror which Makarov and Erza took note of.

"The mirror wasn't like that when I left…" Happy muttered, now growing concerned.

"Natsu?" Makarov called out.

The response was a deafening silence. Makarov was about to call again but he heard running water.

"Look," Lucy gathered everyone's attention and pointed to the bathroom. The door was closed but there was some water mixed with some dark red color flowing out from the bottom of the door.

Gray banged the door hard. "Hey Flame Brain, open this door!"

Happy shared a nervous glance with Lucy. This time Erza yelled, "Natsu, get out of there or else-"

Gray didn't bother to let Erza finish the sentence and he broke the door down. "Natsu!" he growled in annoyance until he saw the sight in front of him. His eyes widened in astonishment. Makarov looked over to see the inside of the bathroom to find a horrific surprise. The sight made him worried and sick. He grew in size to blockade the others from seeing what was inside, with the exception of Gray who was already inside the bathroom trying to grasp what he was seeing.

"Happy, go get Wendy. Lucy and Erza get Porlyusica, Now!" Makarov ordered with an intense tone. They three shot the master panicked looks as they knew whatever sight was in the bathroom was a bad one. They quickly rushed out of the house to carry out the Master's orders.

Makarov shrunk to his original midget size and his skin revealed bullets of sweat racing down to the ground. He looked sadly to Gray who was having trouble understanding the sight.

Inside the bathroom was an inundation of a bloodied water mixture on the floor. The bath tub was overflowing with water as the water from shower head continuously rained down on the full tub. The most unsettling thing was Natsu laying on the floor, leaning on the side of the tub. His arm had a lot of cuts in the water filled tub, making all the water red from his blood. The rest of him was in a puddle of blood, with water sweeping it away. There were deep cuts and lacerations everywhere on his body, spilling out streams of blood to the floor. In his hand was a bloody knife to their surprise. His eyes were closed, like he was at peace, a very unsettling expression when seeing someone injured or possibly dead at a scene like this.

Makarov walked passed Gray to approach the bloody dragon slayer. He would do the thing that usually determined life or death: checking his pulse. He sighed deeply and prayed to the first master that he would be alive. The old master placed two fingers over Natsu's neck, to the side of his windpipe.

The feeling of no beat terrified the two of them as they thought the dragon slayer would be gone forever, and by what? From the scene it looked like Natsu hurt himself. Killed himself.

Makarov always wanted a few seconds of peace and quiet from time to time because his guild was always rowdy, but not like this. He hoped that the fire's beat would get going, he wouldn't mind a couple of villages and forest being burnt down for cost of this life.

After more seconds of a killing silence, there it was.

The fiery beat.

* * *

Natsu wasn't really sure what happened. One second, he was washing his face, with the occasion of banging his head on the sink faucet to try to get rid of his horrible headache- it didn't help at all though. The next second, his daylights were knocked out, literally. Suddenly, everything turned dark as if someone killed the sun. Immediately, his battle instincts kicked in and tried to locate any enemy near him by smell and sound. For a second, Natsu thought he didn't pay his electricity bill, but he forgot that his house's main source of light was the natural sun and fire, so the darkness had to be someone's doing. Luckily, his bathroom was small, smaller than Lucy's bathroom small, so the person couldn't be in the bathroom with him. Unless that intruder was invisible or intangible which would be so cool. He lit his fist in flame to see what exactly was going on in the darkness.

Then bam, at that instance, he lost consciousness. He didn't know how, but he did. And he really felt ashamed that he was knocked out so easily. There was no way he was going to tell the ice popsicle about this.

When he regained consciousness, he felt wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket. He also felt a weight on top of his chest, a weight equivalent to Happy's weight. He didn't bother to open his eyes, the creature sitting on his chest was definitely Happy.

"Happy..?" he said in a low, raspy voice.

Immediately, he felt Happy hug his chest.

"Natsu!" the blue exceed cried.

The painful headache came back and screamed at his brain, along with a searing pain and _burn_ come from the rest of his body. He couldn't help but grab his head. He let out an uncontrollably loud groan before opening his eyes. He saw Wendy right next to the bed he was in. The blue haired girl smiled, "Thank goodness you're okay."

He nodded and realized he was in the guild's infirmary. A room he unfortunately occupied frequently since his membership to the guild. Then he felt a familiar evil/killing intent from a certain red haired woman. To his left, he saw Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Gramps.

"Hey…" he croaked. "How long have I been out?"

"About ten hours," Wendy quietly answered, her eyes fixed on each movement Natsu was making.

"Care to explain?" Erza growled, flashing red, murderous eyes at him.

He was about to ask what they were talking about, but Happy's plead answered his question for him. "Why did you do it?" tears from Happy's eyes spilt on his neck as sad eyes stared at him. "Why did you try to kill yourself?"

Natsu couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the assumption, even under this horrible, melancholy atmosphere. "What are you talking about? Igneel's dying wish was for me to keep living. As if I'd disobey my father's last wish like this," he quietly laughed, even though laughing really hurt his insides. Although it was touching for him to hear his family worried about him if he actually tried to suicide.

"Then… what were you doing in the bathroom?" his eternal rival asked with a tone of carefulness.

"Washing my face," Natsu smiled. "Yeah Ice Princess, I care for my own hygiene too."

Gray growled, "I seriously doubt that, Fire Breath. You always smell horrible."

Natsu would've clashed heads with Gray as usual, but everything hurt so bad, he wasn't sure if he could move without feeling the whole sky's weight on his shoulders. He noticed his friend's stares still on him so he added more details. "Well… there may have been an intruder that may have gotten the better of me…" His eyes focused on Gray, if that Ice Prick made an insult now, then…

"An intruder got the better of you? You of all people?"

"Ahh… Well…" Natsu didn't really need to make an excuse. They knew he was a strong mage and for him to fall so easily, that meant danger. At least he was alive… barely. "It's fine, at least I'm still alive."

They all narrowed their eyes at him.

"Do you know who did this to you?" Lucy asked as she signaled his attention to all the bandages wrapped around his body.

"...No..." he meekly responded. Erza was looking at him like she knew he was still hiding something. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know. Normally, we'd expect a more angry reaction from you after getting knocked out?" Lucy awkwardly clarified their thoughts.

Natsu snorted and hid under the blanket. "I'm just tired."

"And sulky apparently," Happy coughed with a sheepish look.

Natsu made fake snoring noises so they could all just leave him alone. He heard Gray snicker and the door open then close.

He threw off the blanket since he felt _so hot_. He saw Wendy still sitting on the stool right next to the bed, her worried expression never faltering.

"Please don't make such sudden movements," she advised as she gently check the bandages all over his body. He deeply breathed in and out as he tried not to focus on all the pain that his nerves were constantly screaming at him.

Thoughts drifting back to the dream and to his origins, he sighed with a pained look. Forgetting that he was not alone, he muttered, "How am I going to tell them?"

"Tell them what?" Wendy innocently looked at him in confusion, still worried for the physical and mental health of one she could think of as an older brother.

"Everything."

* * *

Wendy, trying to understand what Natsu meant, sat on her stool while Natsu sat up and stretched his muscles. He looked to be in great pain yet he also looked used to it. Wendy thought it made sense, considering all the battles he fought during his career as a Fairy Tail mage. But then she reminded herself of her analysis of Natsu's injuries. Just cuts, shallow and deep, all over his body. Presumably caused by the knife that was placed in Natsu's hand when they first found him. There was nothing else. No magical residue in the cuts or anywhere else. Nothing else had been inflicted on him. Just many physical injuries.

And it was a miracle he was still alive.

Judging by the scene, the culprit must have either had a personal grudge against the fire dragonslayer or wanted to make it look like he committed suicide. _Perhaps his blood was needed for something?_ Wendy hushed the seemingly random thought. Either way, someone wanted him dead. Just... who? Who could do this without magic? Or who could do this while concealing their magic from the attack? Who would want to kill Natsu?

Many questions, yet Wendy couldn't find any answers from the scene or from the victim. Her mind trailed back to Natsu's words. He wouldn't say anything else afterwards but it was obvious he was hiding something. _He was hiding something,_ she felt a voice in her mind echo back to her. She wouldn't believe it though. Ever since they met, Wendy knew that Natsu was just not one of those types of people who could hide something. At least, hide something he was aware of.

More questions sprouted in her mind, a seed of doubt planted. But all the experiences they had gone through, all the strong bonds they had created with each other washed the doubt away quickly. _This was Natsu-san. Everything was going to be okay_.

Wendy suddenly heard a loud _thump_ on the chair beside her, making her slightly jump from her seat. She seemingly just realized that Lucy, Gray, and Erza reappeared inside the room, and they dropped a small box containing a deck of cards on the chair. Labeled on it was _charades_.

"Hey?" Natsu asked, confusion clearly present.

"We're here to play a game," Gray said, his usual cold tone was gone. He seemed more stiff, like he was preparing any moment for the intruder to strike back.

"Uh-huh…" Natsu uncharacteristically sounded unenthusiastic to play a game.

The people all shared worried looks with each other. Natsu had never expressed a disinterest in anything other than nothing. It was understandable if he was upset about the incident. And he was still upset with Igneel's death. They were just hoping to have some team bonding time, to cheer their team member up.

"We're going to play a game, _with you_ ," Lucy rephrased in a cheerful tone.

"...Uh-uh," Natsu frowned, shaking his head in refusal.

"Come on… It'll be fun!" Happy said as he bounced from Lucy's shoulder to the couch to poke Natsu in an annoying way. "Natsuuuu… We haven't fished together in a long time! It's time you repay!"

Wendy, thinking that having some team-bonding was a good idea, agreed, "Natsu-san, you can't do anything else in your condition. This will be a good way to pass time."

Natsu sighed in irritation. He seemed like he knew this was an excuse to stay in the room to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. Or to make sure no one tries to harm him again.

Erza approached the dragon-slayer and shot him one of her deadly glares. "Natsu, do you want to get hurt?"

Natsu turned his head to face Erza. "Fine…" he groaned. Happy and Lucy cheered, even though Natsu didn't exactly look 'pumped'. "What are we playing?"

"Charades," Gray said as his clothes suddenly disappeared.

* * *

Natsu knew that he should be acting excited, energetic, _happy_. However, after that dream, being almost killed by a random intruder, and that whole Tartaros incident, Natsu felt like he was quickly being pulled back to _who he was supposed to be_.

"We borrowed a deck of cards from Cana," Erza said. "You'll start first. Pick a card."

She put forth a deck of face-down cards in front of Natsu. He picked a card somewhere in the middle of the deck.

 _Demon_ , it read on the card. Natsu's eyebrow twitched. It was like the universe was telling him the obvious.

Lucy noticed Natsu's little reaction and decided to peek at the card, despite being against the rules. Her eyes widened as she took the card from Natsu's hands. "Maybe you should pick a different one…" she chuckled to brighten the mood. She showed the card to the other members to show what the card read. They all understood. After just fighting Tartaros, acting like a demon now might be too soon.

Natsu proceeded to pick another card.

This time it was _Dragon_.

Lucy swiped the card from Natsu's hands and said, "Maybe you should pick another one. Heh…" From the fact that the dragonslayers literally lost their respective dragon, dragons were currently a sore topic for everyone, now wasn't exactly a good time to remember what was lost. She ripped both the Demon and Dragon cards with a sheepish grin.

Natsu picked another one. He was unsurprised about what this card was about.

 _Death_

This really wasn't his day. Natsu scowled, how does someone even act as death anyway? Was he supposed to act like Zeref?

Erza, guessing that what was on the card wasn't something good again, she sliced the card into thin pieces while avoiding Natsu's hand. "What's wrong with these cards? I'm going to have a stern talking to with Cana later..."

"Maybe we should do something else," Wendy sweat-dropped.

"I concur," Erza said as she requipped away the deck of cards. "Gray, go find your clothes while I think of some other game to play."

"What?" He looked down at his bare chest. "Not again!"

Despite the others wanting to play a different game, Natsu decided to pull one last card from the deck while the others were distracted with deciding what other game to play. It couldn't have been worse than the other cards.

Slowly looking at the face of the card, a genuine smile graced Natsu's face.

 _Friends_.

Again, he had no idea how anyone was supposed to act that out, but for the first time that day, he felt _happy_. Looking up from the card, he glanced at each one of his friends. Erza was scolding Gray for losing his clothes for the umpteenth time that day. Lucy was sweatdropping, then screamed when Wendy suddenly tripped over a bug and knocked her to the floor. Happy was...

"Is it fish?" the blue cat asked as he stared at the fire dragon slayer.

"What?" Natsu's eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"The card. Is the topic fish this time?" Happy said, pointing at the card with drool hanging off his mouth. "You're smiling so it has to be fish!"

"Sorry my friend," Natsu patted Happy's head. "It's not fish."

"Oh," Happy said as he frowned a little. "Then what is it?"

"It's a secret."

"Bah!" Gray said loudly as he had a sarcastic smile on his face. "Flame-brain's incapable of holding secrets."

"Yeah, Gray's right. You're pretty bad at hiding secrets," Happy laughed.

Natsu snorted loudly. _Oh if only they knew._ "Oh yeah?" his voice rising to meet the tone he usually had when he got into arguments with Gray. "What makes you say that, Ice Princess?"

"I pretty much knew who you were when I first met you," Gray chuckled at the memory of their first encounter. "You're like an open book."

 _Open book, huh?_

Before he could say anything else, Gray received a thrashing from Erza for not having found his clothes yet.

Natsu sighed as he placed his head on his hands. _The damn headache came back._ He also felt a pit in his stomach, not because he was hungry, but because he had a very bad feeling about _something_.

But when he thought about his friends, he felt his mind reach a state of clarity... of peace. They were his only reason for living. Forget the mission Zeref gave to him. Forget his original intentions for joining the guild. Forget what he was. Forget who he used to be... his mind flickered to the demons of Tartaros.

 _Forget who he used to be..._

He clenched his right hand as his gaze passed all his friends again. If Zeref wanted to take that away from him... he'd be damn sure to kill him before that happens. Even if it meant destroying his life. "A life that wasn't supposed to be living anyway..." Natsu unknowingly mumbled out lout to himself.

If anything though, he was grateful to have this life.

"Ah! Found it!" Gray exclaimed as he found his clothes, before proceeding to put them on.

Erza tightened her glare on the fire dragon slayer. She might have heard what Natsu said. And given Wendy's expression and enhanced senses, she seemed to have heard him too. They were clearly troubled with all his cryptic messages.

Natsu didn't make any further noise.

Lucy tilted her head, wondering what her friend was thinking about to make him create such pained expressions. "How about we all go on a job? It's been a while."

"Um, sorry Lucy-san, but Natsu-san's in no condition to do anything like that," Wendy reminded the blonde.

Lucy smacked her head for already forgetting. Geez, the man was almost killed today, give him a break, she seemed to mentally slap herself.

"You guys should go on ahead without me," Natsu's lips formed a small smile. Cheerful, but the smile was nothing compared to his usual brilliant grin.

The group, once again, shared worried glances with each other. The fire dragon slayer did just get attacked and almost killed today. They couldn't just leave him behind, knowing that the intruder might strike back. But Makarov did say that he would stay behind and keep an eye on the dragonslayer. Just in case the intruder found out he was still alive and attempted to finish the deed for real.

"I'll stay," Wendy finally broke the silence. "You guys should go since we still need money for the reparations of this city."

Faithful that both dragonslayers and the guild master would be enough to protect themselves, the rest of the wizards marched out to get their mission.

* * *

"Okay Master, we're off then," Erza waved as she left walked out of the guild doors.

Makarov nodded as he watched Gray and Lucy follow Erza. He looked at Happy who reluctantly looked at the team and at the room which held Natsu in.

The master patted the head of the blue cat reassuringly. "Natsu will be fine here. You should go with them to get some money for Natsu."

Happy nodded, convinced that his best friend will be okay. He spread his wings and flew to catch up with the team. Carla, whose respective dragonslayer was also staying at the guild, decided to tag along with the team on the mission, at Wendy's request.

Nearing midnight, the guild was almost empty. Mira, who usually stayed at the guild til midnight, had left to tend to a Elfman and Lisanna who had caught some illness. Makarov turned his gaze to the only other member in the guild hall, Max. The sand mage cracked a nervous smile as he picked up a broom and left.

"Night Master," he said.

"Wait," Makarov facepalmed as if he knew what exactly Max's intentions were. The sand mage halted at the Guild Master's request. "You're not going to try to do anything _bad_ , right?"

Max gulped as he attempted to plaster an innocent smile on his face. "No… What could possibly make you think that..?"

Makarov shook his head. "There was no mention of you in that silly newspaper, so I assume you're going to try something reckless to get _fame_."

Max whistled nervously, clearly unable to hide all signs of guilt. With one last look at the Guild Master, he bolted out the guild building.

The third — or sixth now — guild master sighed as he sat at the bar to pour himself a drink. The silence comforted him, a privilege only available during the dak hours. Drinking down the last ounces of the beer, he stared at the direction of where the infirmary was placed. His worried thoughts consisted of the resident fire dragon slayer.

First there was no mention of the fire dragon slayer in that blasphemous newspaper. Then there was an attack on the unmentioned member. He couldn't help but feel that there was some sort of connection. He wished the members didn't destroy all copies of the newspaper so he could find out who wrote the article.

The sickening feeling of upcoming omens embraced the old man.

The no longer comfortable silence was interrupted by Wendy's cries.

"Natsu-san, please! You mustn't move in your condition!" the sky dragon slayer begged.

Natsu grunted, but didn't reply as he kept his gaze glued to the guild's main entrance, two giant wooden doors.

The two mages present gave Natsu a concerned glance before looking to stare at the main doors as well. Soon, they could feel a dark aura emanating from the other side of the doors. A very dark, cold, _deathly_ aura.

Suddenly, the doors burst open with great force, almost pulling out of its hinges.

Before them stood a young man. His skin had a pale tint, greatly contrasting with his noir colored hair. His face held a gentle smile, yet none of the mages could feel it was pleasant.

Makarov noticed the fire dragonslayer tense up beside him. It almost seemed like Natsu was restraining himself from doing _something_. However, the cold, hatred-filled glare towards the stranger could not be hidden from anyone.

"Greetings," the man said, his being clad in a black cloak with a white sash over it.

"How may I help you?" Makarov tried to keep his tone pleasant. Despite his instincts telling him that this man was dangerous, he could not allow himself to be rude to a man he just met. No matter how suspicious he was. However, the other members present couldn't stop themselves from taking a defensive or offensive stance.

"You are Master Makarov, I assume?" the mysterious mage politely said with his gaze on the guild master, occasionally flickering to the fire dragonslayer.

"Your assumption is correct," Makarov answered, in the back of his head he wondered if Natsu knew this man. "Who might you be?"

"Ah, I'm sure you've heard of me," the mysterious mage said, suddenly emitting a dark, _deathly_ magic around himself.

Makarov and Wendy's eyes widened in horror as they saw the wooden floor around the mage start to crumble up and _disintegrate_.

"My name is Zeref." The deathly magic built up and increasingly covered a wider range, compounding everything it touched into dust. Makarov's eyes widened, immediately recognizing the name.

"You may know me as the Black Wizard."

The Black Wizard's magic suddenly burst outwards, erasing every organic matter it touched from existence.

Makarov could do nothing but await death.

Before the wave of death reaches him, the pink haired member of the guild shielded him and Wendy with his body.

Once the deathly magic subsided, Makarov noticed that the pink haired mage had completely disappeared.

Leaving behind only his trademark scarf tainted in black.

* * *

"NATSUUUUUU!" Wendy screeched in horror as she came to the conclusion that her friend must have evaporated into dust along with the majority of the guild hall.

She felt Makarov, who was beside her, move to stand between her and the Black Wizard in a defensive/protective stance. She could tell that her guild master was erupting with anger alike a parent who had their child taken away from them, yet he was restrained as if he knew that one wrong move could end both their lives.

"Do not worry," Zeref chuckled, amused with their expressions. "I merely teleported him away. He is unscathed."

Makarov growled, quickly disbelieving the words. Wendy couldn't stop herself from shaking as she too believed that Natsu was forever gone. She quickly grabbed the scarf and hugged it against her chest. The condition of the scarf reminded her of the events at Tenrou Island.

"I have no reason to lie to you. You may soon see him again," the Black Wizard walked closer to them. "You can believe me or not. However, I'm just here to warn you."

"Just here to warn us? You just attacked us and potentially killed one of my children!" Makarov roared with anger.

"My apologies, I sometimes cannot contain my excitement when I meet certain people."

"You're insane…" Wendy couldn't stop herself from blurting out. She, however, quickly clamped her mouth with her hands.

"I hear that's how I got my moniker," Zeref simply replied without even looking at her. "That is besides the point. Come, follow me. Else you might all die."

Despite not wanting to comply with the Black Wizard, they had no other choice but to follow.

Wendy noticed how Makarov seemed to stiffen when Zeref revealed a secret staircase leading down. Nonetheless, they followed him down the steps.

As they walked down the steps, the torches on the wall beside them started lighting up.

"You did a fine job defeating my demons," the Black Wizard started small talk.

Wendy clenched her fists, yet finally finding courage to speak. "I hear that you yourself killed Mard Geer."

"Well, when it looked like my brother wasn't going to finish him off, I went ahead and took action.

Chills went up both Wendy and Makarov's spines. _The Black Wizard has a brother? Seemingly deadly enough to kill the leader of the demons?_ It was a terrifying idea to think about.

"I wonder if you'll be able to survive the next wave," Zeref smirked as he finally reached his destination.

Before the three mages was a large crystal. Looking closely, Wendy could see someone trapped within it.

"How do you know of this?" Makarov scowled as he moved in front of Zeref, like he would give away his life before allowing him to touch the crystal.

"I was friends with her," Zeref said as he enveloped himself in darkness, quickly appearing directly in front of the crystal. He placed his hand on the crystal, the immediate reaction being the crystal shattering in trillions of small pieces.

"NO!" Makarov yelled, but he quickly saw that the body that was inside the crystal was unharmed. Wendy was just confused as many questions swirled in her mind. Like, _who's this girl? What's she doing in a crystal? What's she doing in the basement? Why does she look so familiar?_

If they were in any other situation, Wendy would have looked on in awe. To see the body of a young girl graciously float down to the floor. Her presence was one of pureness. However, the Black Wizard of Death caught the girl in his arms, causing Wendy to tense up once more, wary of his intentions. It was only then that she realized that this looked like the First Master who had appeared as a ghost during the Grand Magic Games.

"There's going to be a war soon," Zeref said as he laid the girl on the floor, gently. "I thought that perhaps to level out the playing field a bit, you should have your Fairy Tactician to help you."

Despite the many questions that filled Wendy's head, she didn't feel like she would get any answers. So she stayed quiet.

"You have one year to prepare," The Black Wizard's words eerily echoed through the chamber as he suddenly vanished into the darkness.

Wendy bit her lip and stayed in a defensive stance, unsure if the Black Wizard was still present.

She was snapped out of the tension when a long groan reached her ears. It came from the girl that was in the crystal.

Makarov quickly took the girl in his arms and rushed up the staircase, not before telling Wendy to come up as well.

The sky dragon slayer solemnly looked down at the tainted scarf in her arms. After a few seconds, she then proceeded to leave the mysterious chambers and hope to gain answers from the current guild master.

And hoped that Natsu was safe... wherever he was.

He couldn't just leave like this.

Wendy would not accept any fate where Natsu would just disappear from her eyes and never appear ever again.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Okay, if you know me for my other works, you might be wondering, "Why are you writing this other story when there are three other stories you haven't finished?" I actually have a good excuse: I wrote this chapter TWO YEARS AGO but never published it. I don't even remember writing this XD. But I guess now is a fine time to write and publish this. Despite having three other uncompleted stories... Sigh...  
**

 **Seeing as how I'm going to try to dive back into the other stories and TRY to finish them, I'm using this story to re-familiarize myself with the characters and concepts of Fairy Tail. I can do this on this new story because... well, no one had any expectations for this story before now.  
**

 **So yeah, I write this like it's a WARM UP (So forgive me if it sucks) to prepare myself for when I write my... other... cursingly large stories. (Why did I do this to myself?). Though if you're actually interested, don't be afraid to slap on a review.  
**

 **While I'm here, I might as well say that there are no pairings. I do not even have a decent ability to do romance. :3**

 **Oh well, thanks for reading and hopefully you enjoyed.**


	2. Fimbulvetr

**Chapter Two**

 **Fimbulvetr**

Zeref smiled at the astonished Fairy Tail mages as the darkness enveloped him and brought him outside the Fairy Tail guild building and into a secluded forest nearby. He was greeted with the sight of his younger brother, who did not look pleased to see him at all.

Their last meeting had been brief, during that time in Tartaros when Zeref disposed of Mard Geer and reclaimed the book of E.N.D. They hadn't traded many words back then, since the dragonslayer didn't want to blow his cover in front of that ice mage— one his brother called 'a good friend'.

The hostility shown from his brother knew no bounds, Zeref could tell that Natsu was using all his strength and willpower to not attack.

"Can I not expect a hug?" Zeref lightly joked, already knowing the answer was no.

"I could, if you hadn't programmed me with the endless desire to kill you," Natsu spoke, while while failing to urge his muscles to relax slightly. "You didn't harm anyone back at the guild, right?"

"Of course not. I plan for a war in the future. Not now. I still have many preparations to make…"

"A war…" Natsu grimaced. "Is everything still such a game to you?"

"I cannot think of life any other way, thanks to this curse you still have not freed me from," Zeref sighed, faking a sorrowful tone. "I wonder who you will join. Fairies… Spriggans… Dragons… or will you make your own side?"

"Like I'd join you or Acnologia," the dragonslayer scowled at the thought. "Though you made me originally join the guild for… _reasons_ , I really like these humans… and cats. I _love_ them. They're my _family_. I won't let them fall to this game of yours."

"You say that, but they know _nothing_ about you other than that you have a flamboyant personality. I thought you were still just pretending to be their friend after all these years."

Natsu visibly flinched, but did not keep his eyes off the dark mage. Taking a deep breath, he said, "They don't care about the past. It's who I am now, and what I do now, that they care about."

"Remember those words when your secret inevitably comes to light," Zeref chided gently, a small part of his brother sense emerging, only briefly.

The dragonslayer did not look comfortable, it even looked like a chill went up the young man's spine— unusual for one who wielded fire magic.

Zeref sighed, unimpressed. "I'm not here to talk about your current mortal affairs though. Right now, I want to talk about your current physical condition," the black mage said as he pointed his gaze at the bandages suffocating his younger brother's body. "I see many cut wounds. I also smell a curse…"

Natsu raised an eyebrow, surprised. "You didn't do this to me?"

Zeref scoffed, "I want _you_ to _kill_ _me_. Not the other way around."

Natsu seemed reluctant to ask the dark wizard for answers, but now he was getting generally concerned for a new threat to him and his guild. "Can you tell who did?"

The Black Wizard smiled at his little brother's request. "Anything for you, little brother. _Life is short these days…_ " He held his finger up against the air and concentrated on the magic —the curse— that emanated from his brother's body.

"Hmm… this is definitely _her_ doing…" Zeref concluded, his interest had been piqued. "The demon who didn't join Tartaros."

Natsu tensed up, knowing exactly who the Black Wizard was talking about.

"I hear _she_ is currently the leader of a very big cult these days… _Faithful Souls_ , I think it's called? Well… something souls. From my knowledge, they are obsessed with killing me, for perhaps the wrong reasons," Zeref grew amused with the troubled expression present on Natsu's face. "Maybe she's impatient with you since you haven't done your job yet. Or maybe she wants to kill me by taking some power from the blood she took from you. Who knows? Oh… I wonder if she'll join the war too… or will she be dealt with before then?"

"If I remember correctly, I am temporarily unable to use magic now because of the curse?" Natsu looked away from the dark mage, retreating into his mind to think about the information he was given.

"Yes, however you do not _need_ magic to control flames," Zeref smirked as he held out a very peculiar book in front of him. Natsu's eyes widened. "If only you would allow yourself to use those flames in front of your friends. _Embrace my gift to you._ "

"You _didn't…_ " the dragon slayer was speechless as the Black Mage placed the book of E.N.D in his hands.

"Unseal the book of E.N.D and give you back your powers? I won't say that I haven't," a smirk grew on Zeref's face.

Natsu growled in annoyance. "I really hate you sometimes."

"Only _sometimes_? That's odd. Oh well, the love is reciprocated," Zeref chuckled. "Now then, I shall take my leave. I can feel someone coming closer to us."

The Black Wizard vanished into darkness once more.

* * *

 _Maybe it's time I tell them..._

After his brother disappeared, Natsu turned his head toward where he could hear quiet —but not quiet enough— footsteps. He saw a familiar man holding a broom, quite intimately.

"Max?" Natsu exclaimed in surprise and in horror. "Wha— What are you doing with that broom? Hahaha..."

Max, suddenly aware of the dragonslayer's presence, jumped in shock while somehow snapping the broom in half with his hands. "—EEP! NO!" He cradled the now broken broom in his arms, like it was a loved one who just passed away.

Natsu swore he saw a tear trickle down the sand wizard's cheek, but, feeling too uncomfortable, he decided to escape the forest. He felt something cold and flaky land on his skin. He looked up to the night sky to realize that it had started snowing. Odd, it was a bit too early for snow.

He found his legs take him to the Fairy Tail guild hall entrance, or what was left of it after Zeref's attack. The ceiling of the guild hall was pretty much gone, along with the main doors and parts of the wall. It would probably look worse when morning would arrive.

It was destroyed so soon after it was finally repaired from the skirmish with Tartaros. This was becoming a normal occurence.

"Natsu!" he heard the light voice of his fellow dragonslayer call out, before being tackled to the floor by a twin tailed, blue haired girl. "You really are alright!"

Natsu groaned out in pain, remembering that his wounds inflicted by that intruder were still fresh and painful.

"Oh, sorry!" Wendy quickly recovered and tried to step away from Natsu and allow his body to breathe.

"It's fine Wendy," Natsu forced a grin. "Did that Black Wizard do anything to you or Gramps?"

The girl shook her head, with a mixture of relief and worry apparent on her face. "Thankfully there was no damage done to us, but…" she gestured for him to follow her into the infirmary.

There, Natsu saw a light blonde haired child resting in one of the beds. She looked oddly familiar, like that ghost in the Grand Magic Games. Oh. "Is that the first master?"

Makarov, currently sitting in a stool next to the bed, looked up at Natsu and smiled. "Ah, Natsu! You're still alive and kicking! Thank goodness for that." He then turned his gaze to the girl covered in bed sheets. "Yes, this is the First Master of the guild, Mavis. She is out of her slumber, it seems."

"Slumber? She was sleeping this whole time? I thought she was dead… THIS IS SO CONFUSING" Natsu loudly complained as he clutched his head in confusion.

"This was a guildmaster secret, almost no one knew of this," Makarov sighed. "But…. given the situation, I suppose I will have to tell you and the rest of the guild together soon."

Natsu nodded in understanding, then he turned his attention to the scarf that was suddenly placed in his arms. It was pure white… purer than when he last saw it. He placed it back around his neck, where he immediately felt an overwhelming wave of relief and peace. He smiled. "Thanks Wendy."

"It was my pleasure," Wendy smiled back. "It seemed that this scarf protected us from the Black Wizard's attack."

"Heh, Igneel still protects me even now, it seems."

Silence followed, it seemed that it was still too soon to talk about the dragons.

Natsu took one last look at the first guildmaster. She looked very healthy for someone who died in his brother's arms a hundred years ago. Shoving the random thoughts to the back of his head, Natsu turned around and opened the infirmary door, signalling that he was going to leave. However, another blue blur tackled him to the ground, startling everyone in the room.

"NATSU!" cried Happy, who appeared singed and scratched all over his fur.

"H-Happy? What's wrong?" Natsu quickly held the exceed tightly against his chest. Makarov and Wendy looked on, in concern. "What's wrong?"

Happy looked up at Natsu, seeing though teary eyes. "I-it all went wrong! We— we were attacked and— And Gray started acting all w-weird and— and— "

"Deep breaths Happy, take deep breaths," Natsu said, trying to calm the cat. "Where are the others?"

"Carla, Lucy, and Erza… they were ca— captured on our way to the mission!" Happy stammered out. "And Gray— I don't know what happened to him! You have to help them!"

"Got it!" Natsu proclaimed determinedly. He turned to meet Makarov's eyes.

The guildmaster reluctantly nodded, giving him permission to take on this new mission. "But don't push yourself! You can't fight in your condition, so avoid fighting at all cost! This is just a rescue mission, you hear me, Brat!" Normally Makarov wouldn't even consider it, but they couldn't waste anymore time.

"Right! Lead me to where they are!"

"Aye sir!"

"Wait!" Wendy grabbed him by his scarf. "Take me with you!"

"Right!" Natsu let the exceed free from his arms to lead the dragonslayers to their teammates. "Let's—!"

Natsu stopped himself as he suddenly felt another presence in the guild building. He took a step out the infirmary room cautiously, ignoring the confused looks he was receiving from the others. In the dimly lit hall, he saw a familiar man leaning against the wall.

Natsu disguised his voice with a tone of disinterest. "Oh, it's you."

"The hell kind of greeting is that, Salamander?" Gajeel roared in anger but then immediately regained his composure. "Erm… I wasn't eavesdropping or something like that. I was just… eating the leftover utensils…" Pantherlily was by his side, sweatdropping.

Makarov smacked his face with his palm in realization that they were going to need to spend more money on the lost utensils.

"Let's go, our friends are waiting for us!" Natsu ordered urging Happy to lead the way while forcing Gajeel going them on their urgent quest. Gods, Natsu's pride wouldn't him to admit it… but considering he wasn't able to use his magic, they were going to need all the help they could get.

Happy led the three dragonslayers and Pantherlily to a train, where they all felt a sense of dread.

Right... the dragonslayers' mortal enemy.

Natsu groaned. The effects of Wendy's Troia were no longer effective on him. His happy train days were over. Wendy and Gajeel were in the same boat, having to go on many long-distant missions meant that troia wouldn't be as effective on them either.

Willing himself to handle the transportation one more time for his friends' sake, Natsu took one step on the train.

Oh he could already feel the overwhelming urge to puke. Holding his mouth, Natsu quickly took seat in one of the nearest seats. Given how barely anyone took the train at this hour, Natsu was able to claim the front seats.

He leaned against the window and, given his current condition with the wounds and motion sickness, he drifted off to sleep.

" _Lucy!"_

" _ACK! Wha- What are you doing here, Natsu?" Lucy screeched, surprised to see her teammate in her apartment. However, she should have been used to it since the dragonslayer barging into her room seemed like a daily occurence._

" _Aye! I'm here too!" Happy chirped, popping up from behind Natsu's scarf._

" _We got bored so we decided to follow you to your room," Natsu flashed a grin as he uninvitedly decided to take perch on a nearby cushioned chair. "Let's stir up some trouble!"_

" _Geez, the whole battle with Tartaros was just weeks ago! Haven't you already had enough trouble for a lifetime?"_

" _Nope!"_

" _Aye!"_

 _The blonde sighed as she took a seat on her bed. "I see nothing seems to get you down for long."_

 _Natsu's grin faltered as his mind relived the moments of Igneel's death._

 _Noticing the reaction, Lucy's words came out a stumbled mess as she realized her mistake, "Ah! I didn't mean it like that! Sorry, that was uncalled for."_

" _Don't sweat it, Lucy. Igneel wouldn't like it if I was always sad when I think about him," Natsu made a small smile, to reassure Lucy that she did nothing wrong._

" _Well, I'm sorry to ruin the fun, but I'm going to take a nice, long shower. So you're going to have to wai— EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Lucy opened her bathroom door to find a very naked Gray standing in front of the sink._

 _The ice mage shrugged as he gave Lucy an annoyed look. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"_

" _THIS IS MY BATHROOM!" Lucy roared as she gave one of her signature Lucy-kicks to the naked man, launching him to the shower and making a dent in the wall. "GET OUUUUUUT!"_

 _Gray crawled out of the bathroom and made some painful groaning noises._

 _Juvia suddenly popped out from the closet and made her way to Gray. "Gray-sama! How dare that love rival abuse you like this! Juvia will make her pay!"_

" _J-Juvia! What are you doing here?" Gray exclaimed in shock._

" _Juvia's not spying on love rival's affairs or anything," Juvia mumbled, but was heard by everyone in the room._

" _Hey Lucy, do you have any fish?" Happy asked, drool hanging from his mouth, as he innocently looked up at the blonde._

 _Lucy just gave him a death glare, making Happy hide being Natsu's back in terror. "Lucy's SCARY!"_

 _Natsu laughed, also earning a death glare from the Celestial Wizard herself._

 _Then came a knock on the door. "Lucy, open up!"_

 _Said girl rolled her eyes. "I don't even have a choice…"_

" _How does that feel, Gray-sama?" Natsu focused his attention back to the water and ice mages._

" _Hmm… a little more to the right," Gray murmured, his face still against the floor. It seemed like Juvia was giving him a massage._

" _Right!"_

 _However, that didn't last long as Gray's face was kicked by steel shoes and his whole body was launched back into the bathroom._

" _PUT SOME CLOTHES ON! It's not respectful to Lucy to have no clothes on in her room!" Natsu felt the urge to 'behave', when hearing the scarlet haired wizard's voice._

" _Aye sir…" came the ice wizard's broken voice. Juvia made haste to help Gray find his clothes, to avoid another thrashing from Erza._

" _Thanks Er—" Lucy started before being interrupted by the infamous Titania._

" _And you, Lucy! You shouldn't be such a prude, especially at your age!" Erza scolded._

" _Well! What about you, Erza! You make the same reactions everytime you see Jellal— And his clothes are always on!" Lucy retorted._

 _Erza couldn't hide an intense blush that took over her face._

" _Wait, Erza has feelings for Je— " Natsu found himself getting kicked through the wall._

" _Lucy!" Erza hissed. "I thought we agreed not to talk about this!"_

" _My bad," Lucy apologized, embarrassed that she accidentally let her friend's 'secret' come out. "I don't know what came over me."_

" _Apology accepted," Erza said as she pointed a sword at Natsu's throat. "Natsu, do not disclose this information to anyone. Understand?" her deadly aura threatened to kill him, with or without the sword._

" _Aye sir…"_

" _FOUND IT!" Gray exclaimed as he burst out of the bathroom, fully clothed now._

 _Natsu rubbed the back of his head to ease the pain caused from getting kicked into the wall. He stared at his rival and snorted," What's the point, Ice Princess? You're just going to lose them in the next few seconds anyway..."_

" _Like I need you to tell me that, Flame Brain!" Gray dismissed as he was fully away of his exhibitionist nature… and fully accepted it. At that moment, his clothing, except the underwear, suddenly disappeared._

" _Hmm? Where did Juvia go?" Lucy asked as she looked at the empty bathroom and closet void of any blue haired girls._

" _She— I actually don't know. She sometimes seems to disappear a lot… just like my clothes."_

 _Lucy sweatdropped before turning to the unwelcomed group in her room. "Okay, so is there a reason as to why you're all here?"_

" _Aye!" Happy decided to answer for the group. "This is the first year anniversary of the team! Or is it seventh? We did miss seven years of it!"_

" _An anniversary for the team?" Lucy repeated to herself with interest. "Oh, but then where's Wendy?"_

" _She declined," Erza said. "She scheduled to meet with Chelia in Lamia Scale."_

" _Hm, so it's just us four?"_

" _FIVE!" Happy growled as he reminded Lucy that he was a key member._

" _Sorry sorry, I seem to be making a lot of mistakes with my words today," Lucy said as she patted Happy's head for forgiveness._

" _I'll only forgive you if you give me fish," Happy pouted._

" _Yeah, tomorrow I will."_

" _Aye!"_

" _So, what are we going to do? Lucy looked at the human members of the team._

 _Everyone had blank stares. No one had really thought this through._

" _Oh! How about we all switch bodies like that time when— "_

" _NO!" Everyone immediately answered as they all had uncomfortable experiences the first time._

" _How about we go declare war on a local guild?" Happy suggested, clearly remembering the events with Phantom Lord._

" _I think we should keep the friendly terms we have with the guilds we already know," Lucy sweatdropped._

" _How about go to a gigantic tower in the middle of nowhere?" Natsu referenced the time they attacked the Tower of Heaven. Oh right, wasn't that the time when he first reached Dragon Force?_

 _Erza shot him a glare: a clear no._

" _Ally with other guilds and beat up a dark guild that's trying to make everyone evil?" Gray remembered the exciting ride that was the battle against Oracion Seis._

" _Weird that we didn't really have to ally ourselves with any other guilds when we battled with the other major dark guilds," Lucy sweatdropped. "But no, we're kind of all still recovering from Tartaros."_

" _Transport to an alternative world with no magic and beat up their government," Erza smirked at the memory of battling her alternate self in Edolas._

" _We did a lot of things as a team," Lucy smiled, proud of all their accomplishments. "But we need to do something 'normal' for once."_

 _Everyone else gave her a strange look as if to say they have no idea what normal was._

 _The blonde sighed. "Let's all go play a card game."_

" _Oh! Oh! Let's play BS!" Happy suggested happily._

" _Isn't that like a game of deception that oftentimes destroys bonds between friends and family?" Lucy stared dully at the cat._

" _Aye!"_

" _I'm in!" Lucy exclaimed confidently, for she was sure she had the best ability to deceive people._

" _Count me in too," Gray said as he thought he had a pretty good poker face._

" _Me too," Erza gave a sinister smirk that sent chills through everyone else's spines— even Natsu and Gray who should have been immune to such things._

" _I'm going to beat you all!" Natsu roared with a wide grin. The others smiled to themselves._

 _As the game got started and it was Natsu's turn for the fifth round, he started sweating. He sheepishly grinned as he looked at his teammates._

" _So, when are you supposed to lie again?"_

" _BS," they all called him out and he had to add the whole stack to his hand._

 _They all started laughing as they continued their game of deceit._

 _Somewhere in the middle of the game, a thought crossed Natsu's mind._

' _Can this last forever?'_

' _The friendships or the deception?' was his follow up thought._

' _Both… probably…'_

 _The thoughts were quickly hushed by the escalating intensity that the game was reaching when the group realized that it was Happy who could be the first to win._

* * *

Gajeel felt the motion sickness take its toll on him, but he wasn't going to be as lame as Salamander and just faint. At least that's what he thought. He soon succumbed to the pain and had a dream about beating up all the other dragon slayers. He felt so triumphant… until he realized that this was just a dream.

He was awakened by the sound of loud, sharp intakes of breath. Gajeel turned his attention to the source immediately, and realized that Natsu was taking many heavy breaths. It was like he was hyperventilating in his sleep.

Wendy seemed to notice this too as she tried to gently wake up the fire dragon slayer.

Seeing as her efforts were having no effect, Gajeel decided to take initiative. Thinking he was being as gentle as possible, he decked the Salamander hard in the face. The force sent Natsu crashing through his seat -and a couple other seats behind him. Gajeel could hear his companion yell in frustration.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Well, you weren't waking up. So I had to try _something_ ," Gajeel smirked.

Natsu glared at the smug Gajeel for a few seconds, before suddenly leaping at the iron dragon slayer and starting a small fight. It wasn't uncommon to see this since they clashed heads with each other almost as much as when Gray and Natsu quarreled with each other.

"STOP IT!" Wendy rose her voice, getting the intended effect as Gajeel and Natsu immediately stopped fighting.

"Gajeel, don't fight with Natsu. He's still injured. Natsu, don't exert yourself," Wendy scolded the two older dragon slayers. Said dragon slayers sweatdropped in embarrassment.

Gajeel sighed, then turned to look at Natsu once again. "Oi, seriously, are you okay?"

Natsu seemed surprised at the worried tone Gajeel had. "Yeah?"

Despite not being one to outwardly show that he cared for the others often, Gajeel actually did feel concern for the guildmates who destroyed his former guild. "I don't want you to drag us down on this mission. If you aren't feeling well, then leave."

"Huh? I know my limits!" Natsu growled, though he was obviously lying. _No one_ in the guild knew their limits.

"Yeah right!" Gajeel growled back as they both readied themselves to get in another fight. They quickly had second thoughts when a deadly aura started to emanate from a certain sky dragon slayer.

"Guys…" Wendy smiled in a non friendly way. The look did not fit her.

The guys flinched away as they both reached the same conclusion. _She's been hanging around Erza too much…_

Natsu quickly returned to his slumber on the floor, with Happy resting peacefully on his head. Wendy also seemed tired, probably from a combination of motion sickness and exhaustion from having to watch over Natsu the whole day.

Gajeel, trying to suppress the urge to barf, stayed as vigilant as was currently possible. He observed his surroundings carefully as he gently patted Lily's head.

The train cart was practically empty without the Fairy Tail members. There seemed to be a couple of other people on the train but they were asleep— they probably missed their stops a couple of hours ago.

Everything was peaceful. According to Happy, the team was ambushed soon after they got off the train.

This time, with their advanced senses, the rescue team wouldn't get caught off guard by an ambush. Hopefully.

Oh no…

He couldn't handle it anymore.

He was going to barf.

Quickly opening the window, Gajeel stuck his head out and quickly released his stomach contents -consisting of the guild's supply of utensils.

* * *

The group of dragon slayers and their Exceed partners (excluding Carla) were excited to finally get off the train when they reached their stop. Natsu stretched as the moon shone down on his face. He stopped stretching when he felt that he almost opened his wounds.

"This feels great!" he grinned at his freedom from the death vehicle. He saw Gajeel hunched over, probably still recovering from having to vomit multiple times during the long train ride. Panther Lily was patting the poor dragon slayer's back.

While Wendy tried to heal Gajeel's problem, Natsu focused his his energy on the scents lingering around in the area. Very faintly, Natsu could smell Lucy's perfume, Erza's steel, and Gray's… whatever that Ice Princess smelled like.

"I got their scents. Let's go!" Natsu declared. The dragon slayers and exceeds all grew determined looks as they followed him. Happy confirmed that they were going in the right direction as the path they were taking looked all too familiar to him. They eventually entered an emerald green forest.

Once a quarter of an hour passed, the group stopped in their tracks. They were bewildered by the sight. The whole area of the forest they entered was frozen solid. And not a sound could be heard.

According to Happy, it was Gray's doing when he suddenly attacked his own teammates. They all concluded by then that the Ice Mage was either tricked or had his mind controlled.

Natsu placed his palm against one of the trees. "This reminds me of that village of Giants." Ice devil slayer magic… right, Gray obtained that during Tartaros. Natsu wondered if he could somehow mask his demonic flames to look like his draconic flames. To turn the mingling colors of white and black into red and orange. That way, he could look less… suspicious.

As they continued their way, their noses caught the scents of other unfamiliar people. From the number of different scents, the dragon slayers could tell that the ambush party was quite small.

Now Happy led the way to where he remembered was the last place he saw his comrades. The many intertwining scents were confusing the dragon slayers.

Wendy started slipping and falling many times on the ice. Gajeel too, but far less than Wendy. Natsu managed, only slipping and not falling. Happy chuckled at the people who had no wings -only to get punched in the face by an annoyed Gajeel. The blue cat quickly recovered and ordered Natsu to avenge him. Natsu laughed at their shenanigans, if only to stop himself to get into a fight and get Wendy angry. Fortunately, the sky dragon slayer just sweat dropped. She was probably more concerned with the injured getting more injured, and could tolerate rough housing between healthy members.

Scratch Wendy spending too much time around Erza. She was spending too much time around Porlyusica.

Natsu sweatdropped at the realization that he knew a lot of dangerous women.

It wasn't long before Gajeel yelled in frustration from falling on his bum for the umpteenth time. "Oi Salamander! Can't you melt this stupid ice or something?"

Natsu raised his eyebrow at the request. The answer would be yes if he could use his demonic powers without garnering too much attention. Maybe he could if he just transferred heat instead of using the flames his friends were unfamiliar with.

Man, he was thinking too much. But maybe his policy of not thinking too much prevented him from reaching many of these obvious conclusions.

Natsu crouched down and placed his hand on the icy floor. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

 _Concentrate. Just a little heat-_

Suddenly a heatwave out of nowhere descended onto the frozen forest and all the ice melted- no, evaporated- in seconds.

 _So much for little…_ Maybe it had been too long since he last used these powers. His growth as a Fairy Tail mage might have also increased his demonic strength… to an extent that he was not used to.

"That's my Natsu!" Happy chirped as he happily danced in the warmer air. He quickly regretted it when he realized now the heat was starting to kill him.

Natsu breathed a sigh of relief as he stood up. He then realized that his fellow dragon slayers were looking at him with confusion present in their eyes- with a tiny hint of suspicion.

"That wasn't magic," Wendy softly spoke. "I didn't feel any magic come off from what you just did. It felt _different_."

 _Aw crap_ , he forgot that magic and curses had different feelings. Just when he thought he was thinking too much, he apparently wasn't thinking enough.

"It kinda felt _familiar_ ," Gajeel scratched his chin, wondering what he was reminded of.

"Natsu-san, you've been acting weird since we found you in that incident this morning," Wendy looked up to him with concerned eyes. Eyes that quickly gained a determined look. "If you're hiding something… please tell us so we can help you."

The others looked at him with worried or suspicious looks.

Natsu sighed, defeated. He wasn't sure if he was sad to be defeated though.

He had been keeping his secret because he wanted to keep having friends. But… after everything they all had gone through together… they wouldn't be true friends if they don't accept him for what he was -is.

Natsu internally shook his head. He didn't need friends. He just wanted to be with these people.

But if he was forced to use his powers on this mission, wouldn't it be better to tell them now?

 _Ugh…_ he hadn't done this much thinking in years.

 _They're my friends. They're my friends. They're my friends._ He repeatedly muttered to himself as a mantra as he tried to gather up the courage to say the truth.

"You may not believe this…" All four pairs of eyes trained on him, surprised that Natsu _was_ actually hiding something from them. "I'm-"

"Found you."

The voice was smooth and sharp, and _cold_.

Everyone took a defensive stance as they looked around for the source of the voice.

"Up there!" Pantherlily pointed up to the sky where a shining blue light suddenly engulfed them all. Once again, the forest was frozen, the dragon slayers and exceeds were to be frozen too, but Natsu's 'suspicious' heat protected them all.

A few meters away, they could all clearly see a furious Gray, whose rage was obviously pointed at them.

"Die Demons!" He yelled as he started casting his next move.

"Wait! Gray! We're not demons!" Wendy yelled, only to have an icy spear hurdled toward her. Natsu pushed her out of the way, and they were both unscathed.

"I guess we can say he's just seeing an illusion and thinks that we're demons," Gajeel sighed as he willed his arm to turn into an iron hammer. He teamed up with Pantherlily to cautiously take out Gray in a non-too-bloody manner. Oh heck with it, they were going to go in an all out punch-sword-fest.

Natsu violently coughed out blood. He cursed that such a small action would get such a horrible reaction out of his body.

"Ahh! Natsu-san! I'll heal you up!" Wendy scrambled up and knelt beside Natsu.

"Don't!" Natsu ordered. He was not going to drag them down on this critical mission- he was not going to have Wendy heal an injury not related to this mission. "Just give Gajeel and Pantherlily back up! I'll be fine!"

Wendy hesitantly nodded as she immediately started to cast enchantments on Gajeel and Pantherlily.

"Happy!" Natsu got the attention of his partner who was on edge. "You and I will go rescue Lucy and the others!"

"Sh- Should we really separate from the others?" Happy worriedly asked as he watched the dragon slayers and exceed fight against the confused ice mage.

"I hate to admit it, but I can't really help them in my current condition," Natsu bit his lip. "We just have to do what we can."

"But if you can't fight… What if we get attacked by the people who ambushed us in the first place?"

"Then we'll be sneaky!" Natsu hissed.

"But we suck at being sneaky! Remember that last time when—"

"As long as we pretend to be ninjas, we'll be fine!"

"...Aye sir!" Happy was about pick Natsu up and fly, but his wings were suddenly frozen into solid ice and Happy helplessly fell to the ground.

"Happy!" Natsu swung his head back to meet eyes with the ice devil slayer. Apparently Wendy, Gajeel, and Pantherlily were all trapped within an ice cage. It wasn't like the power gap between Gray and the rest was enormous, it was just that the three lacked the means to destroy the ice. Heck, Natsu could barely melt that with his own magic.

"OI! WHY WON'T THIS ICE JUST BREAK!" Gajeel angrily yelled as he rapidly continued to slam his iron body against the icy bars.

"NATSU! RUN!" screamed Wendy.

" _E.N.D…_ " came the icy and ominous words from his long time rival's mouth. A neverending, ruthless glare struck Natsu's soul.

Natsu flinched as his doubts were momentarily erased. _This could happen if they find out who you are…_ Natsu shook those thoughts away. Gray was just under an illusion, and he didn't know the true identity of E.N.D. Hopefully… Unless some random enemy told Gray the truth and Gray believed it. _No… Gray's not that much of an idiot to actually believe what an enemy said over the camaraderie that existed for years._

"I'm not—" Natsu stopped himself as he couldn't find it in him to lie about this now. "I'm Natsu! Do you need to get your eyes checked, Ice Princess?"

"Don't try to fool me!" Gray yelled through unseeing eyes. "Natsu may be like a monster, but he's an idiot! He could never be like a murderous demon like you!"

"Fine then, Ice Idiot. You've seen through me, I'm E.N.D." Natsu conceded to Gray's supposed accusations. Natsu trained his gaze on his companions in the ice cage. They didn't seem too fazed by his declaration… but given the context, they probably thought he was just playing along with Gray's delusion, and not actually telling the truth.

He kept his eyes fixed on his caged companions for he knew that they wouldn't take what he was going to do next as a joke.

The aura Natsu was now emanating was reminiscent to the demonic aura the demons of Tartaros alway produced as he used his long lost power to melt the ice around him.

Black and white fires started to form around him. Calming flames… Whispering flames… He was starting to feel like he could do anything. That he could **kill anyone.**

 _ **Stop it.**_

 _Deep breaths… deep breaths…_

 _Fight but do not kill..._

 _Be who you are now. Do not remind yourself of who you were…_

 _He is your friend… You are their friend…_

 _Do you not want redemption?_

 _Deep breaths… deep breaths..._

Natsu looked away from his shocked friends and stared at Gray dead in the eye. A deeper voice without warmth escaped his lips.

" **I am the one you want to kill. The Master of the dark guild of demons, Tartaros. Zeref's deadliest demon. Slayer of thousands. Only ashes are left in my wake. I am E.N.D."**

Gray's teeth clenched together as veins of anger popped on his forehead. Quickly, shining blue lights appeared over his palms and on the ground beneath him, while assuming a stance Natsu felt was familiarly suicidal.

' _You idiot.'_ Oddly enough, Natsu suddenly felt exhausted. Not fired up at all. Perhaps it was from seeing that this Ice Prick would go through such extreme lengths to eliminate someone like him. His flames disappeared and he was surrounded by the chilling cold. All his power had left him.

"YOU'LL PAY! FOR EVERYTHING!" the Ice mage yelled as he almost finished casting his spell.

" **...I'm also your friend,"** Natsu breathed out the only words he could take pride in.

Surprising even himself, Gray's determination faltered just a little, and the magic was canceled. After all, that forbidden magic could only be cast by one with no doubts.

Using this sudden opportunity, Natsu leaped at his rival and punched him square in the face. This seemed to knock the living daylights out of Gray, and not without a cost. Natsu felt many of his wounds reopen and he couldn't stop a blood-curdling scream escape his lungs.

Maybe he should have weakened the force… if only by a little.

Watching the ice around him disappear as a result of Gray's unconsciousness, Natsu collapsed beside his long-time rival… and escaped to where he could hear the flames whisper to him once more.

* * *

 **Fimbulvetr - a harsh winter preceding the end of the world and is the immediate prelude to the events of Ragnarok.**

 **There wasn't much winter, but since these events are placed before the Alvarez war (Ragnarok, according to Zeref)... I thought it fit. I haven't yet planned (I don't have anything planned) anything more winter than this... so... yeah... Norse myths for the win  
**

 **Thanks for reading! :P**


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